


Well, That Sucked.

by Nemhaine42



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Oops, Random Drabble That Ended Up Over 1000 Words, random drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-28
Updated: 2013-11-28
Packaged: 2018-01-02 20:24:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1061230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemhaine42/pseuds/Nemhaine42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy comes home from a date in rather a sour mood. A Steve/Darcy drabble to go with some art on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Well, That Sucked.

A clattering of high heels came tumbling through the door of the common room, bringing Steve’s attention up from his drawing. He’d been sat trying to watch some movie which Tony had described to him as ‘totally hilarious’ but had gotten bored rapidly and started doodling on the newspaper. Everyone else, bushed from a busy couple of days, had gone to bed and he had stayed up to make a start on the ever-expanding list of films he was constantly told he ‘needed’ to watch. But now there was blessed escape from the vapid storytelling in the form of Darcy Lewis returning from a date, early and disgruntled.

 

Dr Foster and her assistant had moved in to the tower some weeks ago and, while Jane spent a lot of her free time with Thor, Darcy was let loose on the rest of them. She was lively, unsubtle and so very, very modern. She spoke in ways that often left Steve pretty baffled. He felt he was sufficiently caught up with the 21st century for most purposes but Darcy was immersed in technological and linguistic progress to a degree rivalled only by Stark. And it blew him away. Steve could never figure out what to say to her when she seemed so purposeful, like she always knew where she was headed. Something Steve rarely felt.  

 

Darcy threw her purse on the sofa, thumped down and began attacking the thin straps and buckles on her shoes. The angry pout on her face told him exactly how well her date had gone. 

 

“That bad, huh?” he asked, wincing as her expression of barely contained frustration was pointed directly at him. But instead of bursting out at him, the anger was put into flinging her stilettos on to the floor hard and she moved on to yanking out hair pins.  Her dark curls spilled down onto her shoulders, no longer flowing and silken but ruffled and frizzy. 

 

During his USO stint, Steve had been witness to rather a lot of the hustle and bustle of the girls getting done up but was normally occupied by signing autographs and getting his picture taken when they were getting changed back to normal clothes. But now he could see Darcy go from glamorous and vibrant to scruffy and so… undone. Hair messy and stockinged feet up on the coffee table. It was enticing, in a domestic sort of way. If only he could get that sentiment and push it out of his mouth in a way she wouldn’t smack him for.

 

“Uh, you look really nice tonight.” he offered. 

 

“Thanks” she said softly. She paused in stabbing away at her phone, her pout descending into sniffs and threatening tears.  He was equipped to deal with a lot of problems, but a woman in emotional distress was not among them. Fortunately for both of them, Darcy took a deep breath and pulled herself back to just looking disappointed. But he still didn’t really know how to tackle this. 

 

“You want a coffee?” he asked. 

 

He was rewarded with a tired smile and a shaky nod of her head, so he got up off the sofa towards the coffee machine. He could feel her looking at him so he fussed about, waiting for the machine to beep when it was done, putting unnecessary effort into finding mugs of equal size and proportion. He turned and jumped at the sight of Darcy standing right behind him. He dropped one of the mugs in surprise, which then smashed against the hard floor of the kitchenette. 

 

“I’m sorry!” he exclaimed, “don’t move, I’ll get it.”

 

The carpet in the rest of the room had dulled her footsteps so much, and he’d been so busy burying his awkwardness, that she’d managed to sneak up on him as she’d approached. He crouched to pick up the shards of china, noting how she fidgeted timidly with her nails.

 

Darcy went on a lot of dates, or so it seemed to Steve who went on none at all. It reminded him of the way Bucky would take out different girls all the time, so he’d figured it was the normal way of doing things. But with each progressive outing she’d come back earlier and earlier until this evening when she’d only been gone a couple of hours. This was the first time he’d seen her show any kind of dejection about the whole thing. 

 

“You gonna be okay?” he asked gently, reaching round her to tip the broken china into the trash. 

 

“Yeah” she said with a sad smile, “I guess I’ve had enough dates for now.”

 

“You don’t really look like you had much fun.”

 

“Nah…” she shrugged, “who knew hanging out with superheroes would ruin you for normal people? You know, some people are just unbelievably shallow and manipulative… and… and ugh…  I feel pretty stupid for thinking someone would actually be interested in _me_ , and not how close I could get them to you guys.”

 

That was precisely the reason Steve avoided going on dates. The people who approached him at various publicity gigs or benefits were seldom after anything other than their own interests, it was only the degree of transparency that changed.  And now even Darcy was unable to meet someone without constantly scrutinising their motives. It sucked. 

 

“Guys are nuts to not be interested in you, Darce. You’re a great gal… girl…. woman. Uh.”

 

Darcy grinned at him, the watery eyes receding. 

 

“You called me Darce.” she pouted, this time feigned. She scolded Clint and Tony for calling her that, but it had just slipped out. 

 

“Sorry.”

 

“It sounds nicer coming out of you.” she said.

 

He developed a sudden urge to pull her in for a hug, which was interrupted by the coffee maker’s beeping. He fixed up two cups of coffee and turned back to see her gazing at him, her elbow propped up on the counter and one foot resting agains the other leg. He smiled at her and nodded toward the sofa.

 

“You wanna help get me through this movie? It’s pretty bad but I don’t want Tony’s references to it to sail over my head anymore.” he said. 

 

Darcy grinned and padded back over to the couch, feet still silent on the carpet. They sat closer together than before, with Steve resting his arm along the back of the sofa. And if Darcy wanted to scoot in and cuddle up, well, he could pretend not to notice. He restarted the dvd and sat back, with a dorky grin appearing at how snuggled up Darcy was. He liked it a lot. 

 

“I know you kind of said no more dates but, uh… we could, maybe, go see a movie together. Something actually worth seeing. If you want.” 

 

“I’d like that. And I swear I won’t use you to try to get to Captain America.” she teased. 

 

“Ah, he’s a total stick in the mud, anyway.”

 

“He is not.” she giggled and poked his stomach. She rested her head against him lightly and he brought his arm down to sit around her shoulder, still smiling.

 

The movie still sucked, though.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm starting to think that writing Steve is impossible for me. I am never happy with the way he turns out.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Well, That Sucked.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1081460) by [shatteredshards](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shatteredshards/pseuds/shatteredshards)




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